Edge City

In Which the Situation is Summarized

The heroes of the city are thoroughly off balance.

The Gray Ghost, defender of the city committed to creatively protecting the culture and safety of those residing there, is at wits end. A quiet civil war between two factions of a werewolf clan erupted onto the public scene with a series of dramatic gunfights culminating in the destruction of a city block through focused terrorism against a hard target.

The two factions are the Shadow Runners and the Templar, both within the Chauncy clan. The “Templar” are so named for following Templeton. Their focus is on keeping a low profile, continuing in the service industry and factory work mostly, with a loose connection to a shamanistic cairn on their property. They congregate at Old Man Marcher’s Place, a house at the edge of civilization backed up on the national park wilderness.

The Shadowrunners focus on using their violent abilities to get involved in organized crime, parlaying their talents into real wealth and power in the city. They want to get paid, they want to be feared and respected, and they want to give orders instead of taking them.

Leadership of both factions was once the Chauncy council, lycanthropes that could achieve the most violent form of transformation. When the split, the Templar were led by Templeton, assisted by his apprentice Jade Wolf/Jeremiah Mann/Michael Walks Alone, who is now called “Wanderer.”

The Shadowrunner council had three members; the leader Kevin, his violent bestial killer Hank, and a tough front-line warrior, Lulu.

Kevin could not negotiate with Templeton, so he opened negotiations with the one who would be called Wanderer. The negotiation ended poorly, and Wanderer’s bodyguard and close friend Biff was shot with silver and killed.

Wanderer called the clan together and told them Biff was murdered by the Shadowrunners, but cautioned them to take no action. They disregarded his advice, and one of Biff’s good friends led an assault masterminded by another of the Templar council, Jerrica.

The attack was devastating and brutal, destroying much of the Shadowrunner strength. Delighted, Jerrica and others of a violent persuasion in the Templar faction continue to hunt Shadowrunners who are caught out in vulnerable positions. Meanwhile, Templeton resigned, discouraged, leaving Wanderer in charge. Wanderer staged another clan meeting, this time telling the clan they were to be heroes, do their part, defend the cairn and the city, and sacrifice for the greater good; while the Shadowrunner leaders must be defeated, healing would follow, and they should not be indiscriminately violent. He then set himself on fire three times, burning off his former titles of “Jeremiah Mann” (in that identity, wanted by the police for murdering cops), “Michael Walks Alone” (A name Templeton gave him), and “Jade Wolf” (because he can no longer function as a vigilante with the Gray Ghost, as he is a killer enabling furthering killing.)

Eventually he adopted the identity of “Wanderer” under pressure from his friends, who wanted to know what to call him. Jeremiah Mann’s fortune was left to his protoge shaman, the guardian of the cairn, Morris Pennywise.

As this was going on, a vengeful Hank took his group and brutally assaulted Wanderer’s assistant shaman Alecia, hospitalizing her and infecting her with lycanthropy. When Wanderer did not face him, he repeated and escalated the challenge by brutalizing young Morris as well.

After addressing the clan, Wanderer took the Alchemist, Isis, and Anubis (knowing the Gray Ghost would be involved) and confronted Hank in his lair in an abandoned arcology. They fought, and as Wanderer knocked Hank down, Alchemist restrained him in the metal flooring. As Wanderer struggled with whether to kill him or not, the Gray Ghost shot the Wanderer and Hank with a drug that forced them into their human forms, disoriented. The Alchemist helped the Gray Ghost take Hank to the Mausoleum, out of the Wanderer’s reach.

It appears the main strength of the Shadowrunner effort has been defeated. However, some complications remain.

Mother Wolf is the totem spirit of the cairn that the Wanderer is charged with protecting. She required him to kill the three members of the Shadowrunner council, as a wandering umbral shaman Stormcrow prophecied that one of them would be responsible for severing the cairn’s connection.

Lulu was likely killed in the assault on Mumford Block that killed many of the clan members and triggered Templeton’s resignation. Hank was defeated and captured by the Gray Ghost. And the Alchemist told the Wanderer that the Gray Ghost has Hank, the leader, in custody. It appears that the Wanderer cannot satisfy Mother Wolf without killing two werewolves that are in the care of the Gray Ghost, who forbids killing in the city.

Also, the surviving Shadowrunners (numbering about 30 warriors) are under the supervision of a woman named Willa Bellchek. She is involved in organized crime, part of a syndicate that just imploded, and she stands to inherit their empire. The alliance could be worrisome.

The Gray Ghost was nearly killed by a werewolf working with the Templar. He would have been killed without the timely intervention of a costumed madman named Painkiller, Gil Franklin, who is traditionally the Gray Ghost’s arch nemesis. Franklin also delivered Kevin to the Gray Ghost, along with the drugs that force the werewolves back into human form, disoriented. This strange turn of events seems to show Painkiller as a more helpful ally than the Wanderer and his mass-murdering clan.

A great ally of the clan, Paul Evans (The Alchemist) has been disheartened by the actions of the clan. This is more difficult for him as they are his adopted family, and he is seriously dating one of their members, Clarissa. Will the clan lose their powerful ally over this burst of violence and mayhem? Will Evans lose people he has grown emotionally close to and protected? What if the Alchemist must choose between the Gray Ghost and the Chauncy clan?

The clan’s historian was murdered, along with many others who were not direct participants in the conflict. How will the clan see themselves? What identity can unite them? How can they deal with the rift between the Shadowrunners and Templar when both sides appear bloody-handed and uncompromisingly vicious?

As the violence has spiked, police have arrested a dozen members of the Chauncy clan, after searching Old Man Marcher’s place with a warrant and finding the weapons used in the assault on Mumford Block. The Shadowrunners used their criminal contacts to lean on corrupt police to arrange this situation, and the Chauncy clan is helpless in the face of the law. It seems convictions are likely, and public attention inevitable—very dangerous for them.

An order of monster hunters, St. Michael’s, has come to town and may end up hunting the Chauncy in both factions with equal zeal if they cannot hush this up somehow.

The Wanderer used his criminal contacts in the clan to burn a body at the Mumford Block site, so the police have announced Jeremiah Mann’s terrorist spree ended when his next scheme was defeated by two rival cells of terrorists shooting it out. However, aside from shaving his head, he has not altered his appearance overmuch, and he continues to appear before sometimes hundreds of clan members who know him, so it seems unlikely the rumors of his demise will be taken seriously.

Also, a taboo of the werewolves is being violated. Someone is eating human flesh. A defecting spy from the Shadowrunner side said it was not their people—is it possible someone in the ranks of the Templar has gone rogue and is feasting on humans?

Jerrica and her followers on the Council continue their violence against the Shadowrunners, delighted to have been so successful in hitting them hard and unwilling to let survivors complicate the future. The Wanderer has reprimanded their attitude and methods, but Jerrica does not seem to take the Council seriously as she zealously conducts her own crusade of genocide.

Increasingly, it seems the Chauncy clan (both elements) proves willing to murder, sometimes on a mass scale. This means the Gray Ghost must either put a stop to it somehow, or violate his own code of ethics. But how do you stop werewolves without killing them? Can killing them be the only answer? And there are so many involved at varying levels… how do you judge the proper response to this kind of mayhem and destruction within a family, spilling out on the city? Is the Ghost up to the challenge of quelling this chaos? How do you kick hundreds of people out of the city when you are one man? They are stubborn, notoriously uninterested in obeying authority figures… Will this break the Ghost’s moral code at last?

As the chaos sorts out with Bellchek willing to shelter the surviving Shadowrunners, will organized crime become more terrifyingly powerful than ever with supernatural violence supporting its edicts?

Can the Chauncy clan find some unifying vision that can help them heal the massive scarring of a civil war that is not clearly understood or framed, with no clear heroes? Or will the schism repeat until the werewolves of the city flee from clannish structure to escape the violence?

Resolving Numerous Issues

Last session, we dealt with the imprisoned Chauncy clan members and the gun evidence, the “volume 13” problem, the Commissioner Treadwell problem, the Chan family leadership shakeout finale, the Shadowrunner problem, the Bellchek underworld succession problem, the “insufficient backup requested” part of the skaven problem, Dante’s fence sitting problem (squarely in the Ghost camp, complete with costume workup), the cannibalistic werewolf problem, and Clarissa and Evans’ wedding.

Also, we ended up with Alex Felton as police commissioner, and interested in befriending the Chauncy clan. And Clarissa is now haunted, or maybe having nightmares. The characters spent some relaxing time pursuing various personal interests, also considering when and how best to attack the skaven. We concluded an hour early (so this was in 4 hours).

An errand for Raven.

The adventure was around September 18, 2009. After some down time, a gypsy shaman named Voskya showed up with a hand-drawn picture on vellum that matched Isis’s face, he found Adrian and said a seer told him that the “man with the owl on his shoulder” would lead to Isis. And he had a fusion, a feather from Raven.

He suggested that Raven created a sacred realm, it was now sealed away by a curse, and there was an Icon of Ravenkind and another mystic item there that Raven wanted back in circulation. Would they help?

Well, they went with him in his wood-paneled station wagon vardo, through the mists and into Barovia, in the realm of Ravenloft.

Apparently Strahd von Zarovich brought a curse upon the realm blessed and created by Raven because of his “love” for a young woman, Tatyana (who was reincarnated as Isis!) The evil vampire wanted to turn Isis into his “Tatyana bride” and endow her with power gained from his experiences hunting her friends and seducing her.

They talked to Madame Eva, leader of the Vistanti of the Road in Ravenloft, who told them that killing Strahd would open the misty borders from sunup to sundown, then he would be back; she wanted to take some of the camp with her and escape this realm. They also spoke to the half-mad priest, who gave them guidance on how a creature like Strahd might be killed.

Dante spoke to the Burgomeister, appealing to his thuggish greed to rule a greater land than Barovia with no Strahd to cope with. Working together, they set up a cell to be airtight (no rabbiting in mist form!) and the Burgomeister told Strahd he had captured Tatyana and party. When the overconfident vampire walked in, they pounced; in spite of their blood-chilling terror, they managed to distract him long enough for Pellwitch to blast him to ashes.

They took Voskya’s station wagon back to Prime, then smished it into a burned sphere of metal. The after-party of relief was held at Isis’s new place, Favian Mansion.

In Ravenloft, Daniel was meaty, Adrian’s magic returned sluggishly and provided less protection, quantum powers didn’t work at all… only Dante’s powers were totally unaffected.

Meg, Daniel, Evans, Dante, Adrian, and Merriweather were pulled into an adventure in Barneveldt County just north of Dencentrael. Detective Garth Wheeler, son of Max Wheeler (a pal of old man Malone) was stuck in an investigation of a once-proud family on hard times that was robbed, a string of internationally famous pearls taken. The insurance company, Rimant and Knowles, would not pay without evidence that the Hazard Pearls were in fact stolen and it was not a case of insurance fraud.

Since Malone was sick, he asked Meg to check into it for him. She agreed, rounding up the “Brain Trust” (as old man Malone called them) to help out. The Pellwitches agreed to help, even though Arius “James” Pellwitch sent Merriweather a telegram to meet at 7 the night after the alleged crime.

The Pellwitches suspected Arius at once, as he was a cat burgler out of favor with the family for stealing cursed items and getting them out of circulation.

The Investigation

They got out to Barneveldt, a half hour drive. Wheeler walked them through the police file, and the INTERPOL file on the “Accursed Cat Burglar” (who the Pellwitches figured was Arius.) They went out to interview the family, meeting a creepy old man (Primus Hazard) who spoke for the family and explained they were also missing some money and an important family document.

They saw the house was crosswise to a dimensional rift, shuddering on the edge of being pulled through by an alien lust. In their investigations, they saw evidence that an otherdimensional force was lurking in the house.

They followed the clues to the beach by the house, discovering Arius’s car. He never left after all. Veronica Pillars gave Dante a file, which was the missing family document explaining the Hazard curse and the origin of the pearls, to a point. They realized the house was on the verge of being sucked to N’Kai by an angered Tsathoggua, who held the pearls as precious and cursed Wilfred, the Hazard that stole them centuries ago.

Loading up with gear, they returned to the house. They had a chance to talk to a couple of the crazy family members (Saphronia and Caleb and Jimmy) before facing the great evil of the house’s secret.

Confronting the Evil

They toured the library, and more of the house, until Adrian pursued a shadowy form up over the roof, and looked into a barred window to see Wilfred restrained. They raced through the house and confronted Prime outside the door to the cursed Wilfred’s prison. He let them in, they talked to Wilfred, then he revealed he had been released by the burglar (and eaten him) and he sprang to the attack.

They used Dante’s unholy force of personality and Thompson, as well as Adrian’s mighty mystic bolts and Evans’ ability to animate his chair and restraints, and Daniel’s strength and grenades. They managed to put Wilfred down, and the mutant children he had failed to eat raced in to devour his remains; one threw the pearls at them in fury for killing their horrific progenitor.

The House Falls

No one accepted the pearls or the curse that crawled from Wilfred’s corpse. They sprang out the window, taking the hit of the fall, and the house’s occupants and energies were sucked down to N’Kai, and the rift sealed, leaving the shell of the house behind.

They found the owl-casting-style remains of Arius under a bush, his lock picks smished in with his remains. Adrian claimed the remains for the family.

Sobered, they returned to Edge City, the mystery mostly solved and the threat resolved. The police were none the wiser, but at least the insurance payout was no longer an issue…

Taking Time for Important Things

Over the weekend of down time, Adrian spent time with Emma, Evans upgraded the Veil and took Clarissa shopping, Dante trained with pirates and took a day off, and Meg set up staff for her house.

Monday, 9.28.09

Healing Alex Schuster
Evans decided to help Alex Schuster heal up from being shot in a mugging. He checked the newspaper office, but Schuster was not there. Evans recruited Dante, who smooth-talked them past the rent-a-cop guards so Evans could heal Schuster.

As they were leaving, Dana Spiegel spotted them, and tailed them back to Dante’s house. Evans spotted her there, and found out she was working on a story about Dr. Cameron Rye, a researcher with the university, who was putting protein trackers under Torpedo Bay to find darkshells. He recently disappeared, and was declared on sabattical, right before Alex was shot. Dana was looking for projectors on her own.

Kryptma Returns
Meanwhile, Kryptma returned to Favian Manor and met with Meg, giving her a bracelet that suppressed her static problem and warning her that the near-miss of destroying 152 dimensions compressed those dimensions, weakening or breaking seals that held things in check. Kryptma planned to pursue some of those dangerous situations to shore up protections through the dimension.

Familiar Surprise
Adrian checked in with Malinta at Feducci’s Italian Restaurant. He negotiated the price for fixing Marcher’s door, and for fixing the door to his own interdimensional Leatherbury Estate. Then Malinta played a song to mourn Adrian’s mother. The emotion proved too much for Adrian’s familiar, an owl; she shifted shape, revealing to Adrian that she was a woman shapeshifter. Adrian got to know her better, finding out her parents gave her to Marcher before she was born; now they are both dead, and she was commanded by Marcher to become Adrian’s familiar. She only speaks Italian and French.

The Cupola
Dante and Evans toured the Cupola, updating its computer and replacing its old medical supplies, cleaning, and so on. In going to the Mausoleum for supplies, they encountered the Gray Ghost, who was in an unusual chipper mood.

Meeting Jack Bower
Evans and Dante caught up to him at the Sinking Dutchman, his favorite pub. He explained that Captain Strickland was rethinking alliance with a vigilante, but Jack understood he had to keep his options open. Evans suggested a “free clinic” to help injured police, to gain allies and favor with the police, and that seemed a good idea.

Barnacle Bar
Dante and Evans headed to the Barnacle Bar next, where Pirate Booty told Dante he wouldn’t get further training until the Letter of Marque and Reprisal was signed by the police commissioner. Evans told Pirate Booty about the possibility of flame-throwing darkshells under Torpedo Bay, asking her to pass that along to the Shell Clan. Kryptma joined them, and agreed to make Clarissa a pager for Evans if Evans will open a door for her.

Adrian and Olivia
After supper at Feducci’s, Adrian takes Olivia to Favian Manor and introduces her to Meg and Daniel. While Olivia rests, Adrian and Meg go to Besquelle. Daniel trusts Meg’s safety to Adrian. Meg creates a vessel so she can communicate in Italian, a gaudy red ring. He buys a violin from a pawn shop to give Olivia later. They return to the Manor, finding that Kryptma will sleep the night there too.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Meg tells Kryptma about the destruction of the Chauncy clan, and Kryptma takes it hard. Evans goes spear fishing with Clarissa in the clear island waters.

Dante’s Lunch
After catered barbeque from the Wailing Pig devoured on Adrian’s yacht, they gather on the Prow of Revelations. They find that Olivia and Snowfall are the same person, Meg has her static issue under control, Evans has a deal with Kryptma, they are invited to scout out Stone Garden for the Ghost for tonight, Dana Spiegel has a news story on protein trackers for darkshells, and Daniel’s invesetigators have been tracking the Bertinelli progress and may be able to identify someone for Dante to give the police commissioner so he’ll sign the Letter of Marque and Reprisal.

Dante also brings up the possible need for a centralized location for safety and efficiency, and Daniel offers tactical thoughts about that, mostly involving South Settler, the Settler Council, and Seertech’s waste reclamation facility guarded by robots and ninja.

Checking Stone Garden
As they swept the meet site, they found explosives and web cams, and a sniper. Daniel subdued the sniper, and as Dante softened him up, Evans went and got the Ghost for the interrogation. Turns out Col. Grainger, leader of the Delta Green strike force, considered vigilantes a big part of the paranormal problem and planned to eliminate the Ghost.

Chatting with Col. Grainger
Leaving the sniper to recover and escape, they tracked down the paranoid Grainger, and the Ghost (with a gate’s help) retrieved him and threatened him. Grainger said it wasn’t over, and retreated; the Ghost planned to follow him, and make his life difficult; if he did not leave by the next day, the Ghost would take stronger action.

The Order of the Silver Twilight is insane.

Supper with Amy.
Meg and Daniel made it to supper with Amy, and Meg revealed she was Genevieve Malone, still alive. Amy was delighted, as she had gotten other offers for work and was thinking about leaving. Meg got a lead on a gangster that Dante might give up to the police commissioner to get the Letter of Marque and Reprisal signed.

Plotting with the Ghost
The rest of the gang had supper at a quiet seafood place in north Gantry, the Gull’s Span. Evans returned to the Mausoleum to find the Gray Ghost anonymously tipping off Interpol and Mossaud and a number of other groups that Col. Grainger was involved in criminal cases that match up to what the Ghost could find of when Grainger was on secret missions; that should keep him busy and out of favor with his employers for a time.

The Ghost also asked Evans to install huge electromagnets in the side of the Hearse. He involved Dante in training with a flamethrower (and checking out on some other heavy weapons in the vehicle graveyard shooting range near the bottom of the Mausoleum.) Tomorrow night, the ghost was going to have a chat with Lena Wilts, and he didn’t want to be interrupted.

Weapon of Destiny
Pellwitch also confronted Marcher and told him about the amulet. Marcher advised him on how being a powerful wizard affected fate, and becoming a weapon of destiny was exquisite pain. He also noted Pellwitch was about to go on a trip, but he didn’t know where. Pellwitch left, taking some time to himself, and eventually found his way to Emma’s for the night.

September 29, 2009

Lunch at the Lodge.
The next day, Dante had lunch at the Silver Twilight Lodge. He was approached by a lawyer, James Clark, who had suspicious about the Silver Twilight Lodge and so snooped around; he just came from the basement, where he found a strange letter. He mentioned a trap door in the basement, long spiral staircase down, some gray hairless men who didn’t seem very alert, a study… Dante told him to put it back and change his membership to somewhere else, and Dante waited until Clark reemerged. Unsettled, Dante took his notes from the letter to Favian Manor.

Researching Cannich.
After looking at the letter, Pellwitch checked with his contact Chatterly for information, Dante checked with his pals at Five Stones for background, and Meg checked her mythos library to find clues. Dante booked a private jet to Scotland, leaving in the morning.

Leaning on Lena
The Ghost orchestrated an attack cornering Lena Wilts and destroying her two IAGO bodyguards with the Hearse and the Alchemist, with fire support from the Black Knight. He took out Lena’s bodyguard, and told her she was under control of forces hostile to the city, she lost her way, he’d trade secrets in the press if she wanted, and he was done putting up with her intimidation. They left her on the roof.

Return to the Lodge.
Dante and Adrian returned to the lodge, seeing John Scott there in an agitated state, and half a dozen accomplished Azatothian wizards. They could not get far into the building, as a wizard babysat them; they did not evade or overcome him, but instead took note of the increased security, and retreated.

September 30, 2009

To Scotland!
The next morning Dante, Pellwitch, Olivia, Evans, Meg, and Daniel flew across the Atlantic into Inverness, Scotland. Customs was curiously brief and handled by a man with a slouch hat and a stamp, they loaded their guns into a lorry and jostled to Cannich, arriving at the inn.

Dante got the locals roused and carousing, and Evans played darts with them, as Pellwitch discussed the latest in football. They discovered that two Americans, Mr. Hancock and Dr. Chisholm, owned a house nearby and were supposedly off on another dig, though they recently returned from an expedition in Africa.

October 1, 2009

The Hancock House.
The next morning, they headed out to the house, renting the tavern owner’s van. They investigated the house, and Meg was shocked to find a powerful ghost there; Hancock was tortured to death, but he was focused on a powerful magic item through the agonizing torture and death, so his powerful ghost remained. She found his corpse, and the hidden third of the R’lyeh Disk, taking them outside and breaking the ghost’s power, releasing him.

They buried the body nearby, and took a look at the Disk.

Meanwhile, they spotted a spy on a distant hilltop. Evans opened a gate, and Daniel collected him. The spy was Jamie MacQuarrie, set to keep an eye on the house. He was convinced Daniel was Belphagor, and they were from the Order, and no one contradicted him. He revealed that the Warlock in charge of a coven of about a dozen witches was old Duncan MacBain, they had some traffick with something reptilian and mystic, Stanford was in town, and so was Chantrain. Meg wiped his memory and left him with the impression he went into the house and was attacked by the ghost (to explain the bruises.) They took the third of the Disk and retreated.

Evil cults and miscreants in Scotland.

More Bad Guys
Standing outside the Hancock House, they saw a couple trucks driving towards them. They all piled into their rented vehicle, and Pellwitch focused on rendering it invisible after they drove it a short distance out of the way so no one would try to park on it.

In one van were a couple rough locals (later identified as Andrew MacQuarrie and some other dude) and in the other was a dandy (later identified as Ian MacLennan) and an attractive teenager (later identified as Anne Chantraine). They roused Jamie MacQuarrie, and he told his woeful tale of going into the house (probably summoned by the ghost) and then being knocked out into the yard. Suspicious, Anne did something to his mind, possibly seeing the truth; she was a mythos mage! She also sensed the energies, and looked for the van, so the adventurers snapped into action and drove the invisible van away as the startled thugs took pot shots at it.

Indirect Action
They drove to Inverness, where Daniel and Meg infiltrated a foundry and nonchalantly melted the gold in it, with Meg making sure it was no longer useful for connecting to R’lyeh. Meanwhile, Adrian and the others checked out a local library, getting into the rare books room and getting the help of a research assistant to look up Marcus Arturus. They found more to the story, and they found out about a local expert, Fr. Andrew MacBride (an American, as it turns out.)

Adrian and Dante visited the good Father at the Church of St. Catherine, and the rest of the adventurers arranged for housing for the night. They met with Fr. MacBride, an had a pleasant if unhelpful conversation with the anthropologist scholar, hearing his theories about the symbolism in the oral history.

Dante arranged for the adventurers to borrow the hotel manager’s son’s laptop, and Meg helped Evans to research online. They found out more about Dr. Chisholm, and his fringe theories integrating various world-wide lore into a mythopoetic conspiracy theory; he had been after historical Book of Mormon ruins, searching for Atlantis and Atlantean colonies (this in North Africa near Casablanca) etc. And he was funded by Hancock, not by a reputable organization.

Dante pretended to be Chisholm’s nephew, claiming his uncle told him they’d meet in Cannitch, and reporting foul play to the police. He got in to see Inspector Murtaw, who agreed to investigate; the Inspector found that none of Chisholm’s credit cards or electronic resources had been used in about two weeks.

Meanwhile the adventurers continued to dig around online. They discovered that Chisholm had corresponded with Professor MacParlan. Calling his house, they found he was in Cannitch looking for Dr. Chisholm. They found that neither Hancock or Chisholm had left much behind in the United States, neither being taken seriously by friends and family or possessing property there.

The Dig Site
Deciding that Prof. MacParlan was likely in danger, they returned to Cannitch and found the Professor at the King’s Head Inn, where they still retained rooms. (Evans also fixed the bullet damage to the rented truck.) The MacQuarrie brothers sulked at the corner of the bar, keeping an eye on things, and Evans used his uncanny powers to eavesdrop on the barkeep on the phone with someone, talking about keeping tabs on people and sorting the professor out—he’s in on it.

Dante went for a constitutional walk with the professor, charming him into half believing Dante was Chisholm’s nephew. MacParlan related a tale of drunken speculation where he and Chisholm determined that the temple in the Roman story might be real, and might be a temple to Azathoth. That was months ago. But MacParlan suspects foul play in Chisholm’s disappearance, and wants to help (but was at a loss as to how.) He suspected that if Chisholm did actually find something, he’d hire locals to work the site, and the best candidates are the MacQuarrie brothers.

Dante returned, and roused the bar with a drinking game while watching soccer, managing to drag the MacQuarrie brothers into it (to the barkeep’s disgust.) Then Meg dove into Jamie MacQuarrie’s mind, and found the dig site (and a sense of guilt.)

The adventurers headed out to the dig site, finding a series of low stone walls and a tent site. Meg and Evans sensed a broken gate in the rubble, and found a statue of a faceless sphinx (a Babylonian mask of Nyarlathotep.) Adrian found a tent site with the ropes cut and the pegs still in the ground, the tent dumped in the lake, and Chisholm’s corpse buried in the ruins two weeks ago.

What started as archeology had descended into looting, then mayhem. Sobered, the adventurers left the dig site and returned to the public house.

Saving the Professor
Fearing for the professor’s safety, Dante went to talk to him later that night, and told him now he was Interpol and the professor was in danger. Evans opened a gate on the other side of the hotel door, to the hotel in Inverness; the shocked professor realized he was looking at proof of dimensional gates, and attacked Dante ineffectually as Dante shoved him through the gate. It snapped shut, and the professor was safe on the other side.

They laid a trap for the MacQuarries, with Danial putting pillows on himself and looping a recording of snoring as Adrian lurked in the background, mystically concealed. The MacQuarrie brothers broke in, intent on doing mischief to the professor, and Daniel subdued them with his crushing grip, revealing himself as Belphagor, telling them the plan changed. Adrian cast an illusion on him so he was menacing and reptilian for a moment. The brothers were believers. They marched downstairs, and the barkeep said Daniel was not Belphagor. Adrian did more shadowplay, and Daniel said he could appear however he wished; cowed, the barkeep subsided, but called someone after they left; Duncan MacBain.

Meeting in the Highlands
The adventurers piled into a stolen car and followed Daniel, out to a house built up against a cliff on the wind-swept highlands overlooking a loch. There, Daniel and the two thugs talked with an old drunk—but another car was coming, the dandy again. He had the girl with him, and a sort of emo hit man thug, the real Belphagor.

Before things could get out of hand, Belphagor found his clothes made of steel as Ian got withered, Daniel punched the old man so he could not get any spellcasting done, and Adrian hammered the girl with a mystic bolt; she vanished somehow, Meg suspected a powerful contingency spell, marking the girl as unusually educated.

Rooting around in the old man’s hut, they found a shelf of occult books with one mythos tome. They also found Hancock’s gold watch, and a hidden door leading to a tunnel into the cliff, stinking of foul reptilian funk.

Duct taping the dandy, the two thugs, and the old wizard, they considered their next move.

Bottles and Bodies

In game, October 3-4, 2009.

There they were in Scotland, then Adrian keeled over. Meg insisted they pull back and figure this out, and probed at his body with spirit lore etc. on the way back to town, finally telepathically maxing out and going in. She fell into a dark place.

Then she was trapped in a pendulum-like object hanging in a bottle by a string, with a yellow-eyed figure (indistinct with blue energy) peering at her. The figure took her to a coma ward, checked to see if she was male or female, then put the bottle on a female body and transferred her consciousness from the bottle to a body. She saw that he was an old man. He gave her something tarry and sharp from a hip flask with an Elder Sign carved on it, then snuck her out in the Mists; otherdimensional contact was painful, but bearable, and they escaped back to his house.

His name was Captain Holt. His premises down by the docks on the north side of Kingsport were heavily defended with Elder Signs and other mythos-related protections, as well as other occult methods. He explained he took an apprentice, Malcolm, who betrayed him and stole his doubloons and some of his less valuable books and absconded to be a freelance wizard. Holt could not apparently pursue him because Malcolm summoned hellhounds and set them after Holt.

Holt abducted Adrian and put his essence in a bottle, and Holt was trying to get Adrian and got Meg instead. So he suggested Meg could rescue Adrian, and she agreed. Holt took her out on the water in his small sailboat, its hull marked with Elder Signs. He sailed close to the North Point lighthouse, which was long since unmanned, its light replaced by instruments to communicate with ships.

The Lighthouse

The lighthouse had a yacht docked, the “Drowned Sorrow.” Holt sprinkled Meg with some dust to hide her from the hellhounds, then Meg hopped off the sailboat and swam up onto the island, ran up the steps to the tiny house attached to the tower. She saw a middle-aged woman at the table inside, and the bottle on the table tinking away (presumably with Adrian’s essence inside.)

She darted in, grabbed the bottle, ran down the stairs, and flung herself into the water, swimming to the boat. They sailed away as fast as they could.

Once back to the mainland, they revisited the hospital and the coma ward, and Holt put Adrian in a body. They snuck out once more, back to Holt’s house.

Adrian’s Tale of Woe

Adrian told them that an ugly man who dated Emma when they were students at Miskatonic U. still carried a torch for her, and did not take kindly to her telling him that she was with Adrian now. So he captured Adrian in a bottle, hiring Malcolm’s freelance wizard services, and he took his little clique to the North Point lighthouse after kidnapping Emma. There, he taunted her with Adrian in a bottle, demonstrating no one was coming to rescue her an she belonged to him now.

Holt advised them he could return them to their bodies, but he was not sure how much they would remember. Grim, Adrian decided to stay and rescue Emma. Meg agreed to help. Exhausted, they fell asleep.

Planning the Rescue

The next morning, Meg found Holt upstairs, badly drained from the night’s exertions. He said she could have any two amulets from a drawer, and she immediately identified two powerful Elder Signs and took them.

Meg and Adrian went to a pawn shop, concerned because they had no idea who they were and they did not want to be recognized as coma patients up and about. Meg bound vain shiny spirits to pebbles to make a couple Rolex watches, which they sold to Neil Hazlett of Neil’s Curiosity Shop. In exchange, they got a pump shotgun, a heavy pistol, some rounds and shells, and a guitar case, along with about $200 in walking-around money—no questions asked.

Neil offered them a tour of the bizarre in the back, for $5 each, refundable if they were unimpressed. Poor guy—he had no idea how tough their minds were, and he regretfully refunded their $10 after they shrugged at the horrors he had on display with absolutely no loss of sanity. Still, they parted on good terms.

They headed to the marina on the north shore, getting a gas can full of gas, a flare, and duct tape, then stealing a nice fishing motorboat and heading out to North Point.

Island Assault

Upon arriving, they ignited their improvised firebomb and hit the “Drowned Sorrows” so flames raced across its hull. Adrian shot the man who came out to intercept them, and noted Malcolm and a woman racing up on the deck of the flaming yacht; Meg and Adrian blew Malcolm away before he could get a spell off, and confronted the woman, who attacked with a knife and was shot.

By now the hellhounds were closing in, but Adrian put a line of salt across the end of the dock, slowing them down. Meg fell into the water and spotted a deep one, clambering out desperately.

Their capacity for magic and physical tasks were greatly reduced by the body switch, but Adrian could still cast a defensive shield. He did so, racing up to the lighthouse; when Malcolm died, the hellhounds attacked even the defenders of the lighthouse, clearing his way to the tower where his enemy waited (presumably with Emma.)

He raced past the hellhounds as they clawed at his shield, and he threw himself into the lighthouse tower over a salt line as they finished his protections off. He traded shots with his foe, then finished him with a shotgun blast. He took his victim’s wallet, noting he was Horatio Marsh from Innsmouth, a wealthy fellow.

As Adrian was untying Emma in the lighthouse tower, explaining he was sent by Adrian, Meg was firing at deep ones that were climbing up on the yacht. Adrian freed Emma and got her down the stairs, then expanded his mystic protection to cover them both as they raced to the yacht, barely making it over the salt line at the end of the dock as Meg fired on another deep one.

Working fast, they cleared the dock lines and sailed away before the deep ones could befoul the boat. Limp with relief, they returned to Kingsport waters, leaving the stolen boat to drift and taking the inflatable lifeboat with its little motor to return to the bay.

Safe Harbor

Meg bought Emma some new clothes to hide her shame, then they got a motel room, they took turns showering, and they gave Emma money to hire a cab to drive her all the way back to Edgarton. Then Meg and Adrian returned to Captain Holt, returning their Elder Signs. He sent them back to their bodies in Scotland.

Chasing the Silver Twilight

This is a placeholder post until I get the notes together on this session. Some highlights:

Adrian and Meg fell over, so the others pulled back all the way to Inverness with their bodies. Dante arranged for a safe house there.

Evans opened a gate to a deserted island and put the miscreants from Cannich there, with some bottled water and jerky to keep them alive until he decided what to do with them.

Dante called Five Stones and got a kind of witch doctor explorer to come help them out to see what was up with their bodies; he was baffled, but suggested his powder circles would keep anything from inhabiting the empty bodies.

They visited psychics in Inverness as Daniel tried to assimilate his previously compartmentalized data on other-dimensional phenomenon.

Adrian woke up, and realized that his familiar was still back in Cannich.

Happy to be all together, they followed Adrian’s insistence they gate back. The bird had been taken, so they stormed the tunnels and fought snake-men who fired other-dimensional rifles at them (and some exploded, the guns were fragile.)

An emissary of the snake people brought the “curse” (owl) back to them in exchange for being left alone. The party agreed.

The owl told Adrian of a puddle warded to be difficult to see. They returned to where there was an altar in the tunnels, where a gate used to be; across the chamber was a puddle warded to be inconspicuous. Within, the second piece of the disk of R’lyeh!

They drove to Inverness and disposed of it, melting it in a foundry (not the same one as they melted the last one). Daniel was evidencing signs of instability, his eyes glowing green.

They returned to Edgarton and scattered on their separate errands.

Adrian soothed Olivia, who was freaked out by her bad experience with the snake men. He also soothed Emma, who was freaked out by her bad experience with her ex. He checked in on his mentor, who was off looking for the “Arc of Vlactos,” whatever that was.

Dante used a librarian with Five Stones to find out more about the location of R’lyeh, narrowing it down to the neighborhood of Easter Island off the coast of Chile.

Meg had a heart to heart with Daniel, who struggled with his new extra-dimensional capacities but was determined to see this through.

Evans did some research and then spent some quality time with his wife.

Sinking R'lyeh

After they ran various errands and tended to their loved ones, Dante called them together at Favian Manor and told them R’lyeh would be rising near Easter Island. That meshed with what they learned about Stanford flying to Chile; Easter Island was a protectorate of Chile.

They got their last round of preparation together (including Evans and Dante releasing the prisoners on the island after Dante gave them a stern instruction to mend their ways.) Then they climbed aboard the charter jet and flew to Valpariaso, Chile.

They arrived about an hour after they left (time zones are weird that way) and went to the Chilean customs office. Dante persuaded the official to grant them all visas as business people who could help Chilean interests; they were authorized to go even though the island was off limits due to a criminal investigation, and their crates were sealed through customs.

Adrian rented them a boat and got them out on a two day voyage to Easter Island, while Dante read a guide book on the island.

Easter Island
They were arrested upon arrival and compelled to make a statement they didn’t know Stanford and were not connected to any of his recent crimes. Dante persuaded the Capitan that they were stupid rich overindulged American tourists, and they were dismissed.

They found that about a dozen people had disappeared, including a number from the visiting professor’s archeological expedition. They talked to Methridge, finding that he was into some fringe stuff (panglyphics) on an expedition from Miskatonic University. He was frustrated as the clock ticked away and the investigation into his missing party kept him from his (already hampered) work. They got to see some of the specimens he had collected; statues that looked like deep ones with long ears, a jar with some hallucinogenic resin inside and a depiction of a cthuloid and person touching some tablet with a sigil on it. Hm.

They went out and checked the site, but Meg could see the massive beam of lighthouse-like interdimensional energy pointing off to sea.

They checked into that later when they borrowed a truck and went alone. Evans noticed a glyph in the cave, Meg explained it would summon/contain a dimensional shambler. But they saw the Arc of Vlactos on a stone altar, so Evans animated the altar and shuffled it over to them so they could get a closer look at it.

The Arc seemed to focus energies into the powerful beam. The heads on the slope generated energy that went into the mountain, then was funneled up to the Arc to beam out, presumably to serve as an interdimensional beacon for steering R’lyeh to Prime.

Meg touched it, and got in touch with the first Chalice Bearer psychically. He told her the Blue Monument was used to dimensionally steer the “island” and her Elder Sign her future self made for her was a key to dealing with it.

Unsure of how best to deal with that, they left it, and in an earnest conversation with Five Stones in the Edge City office, Dante managed to arrange for a seaplane.

Pursuing the Corpse City
After nightfall the seaplane landed, they boarded as it refueled, then they followed the line out to sea. Around dawn they saw the incomprehensible city of R’lyeh, and Stanford’s boat had beaten them there.

They landed the plane on the far side of the island, and climbed up on it as some strange cloud approached. Then they were engulfed in the weird, and traveling more by will than strength and agility.

They found the Blue Monument, and Evans was adept at maneuvering in this dimensionally ambiguous place. He and Meg got to the top, they could see Stanford arranging his cultists to form a hyperdimensional coordinate to open the tomb door.

Apparently the reality of an Elder Sign, compressing reality to one dimension, was alternate to the reality of the tomb doors opening. The first Chalice that battled those doors and sealed Cthulu away needed victory all through the past and future to manage that moment, and what would actually happen; he needed Meg’s help now to manage what happened millennia ago.

Meg plugged in and turned the Elder Sign in the Blue Monolith, compressing the reality of the tomb doors and sealing them; the island began to fall apart, and Evans managed to gate them all off in a very risky move.

Safe
They ended up in an alley in Valipariso, Chile. Then Evans took them home, and they celebrated with contemplative drinking and relaxing in the Favian Manor study.